This year I read 70 books (complete list here). I know that compared to some of you that is not much, but I am very pleased, because it is more than I’ve read in the past two or three years, and I’ve read some great books this year. (The links take you to my reviews.)

Sixteen of the books that I read this year were new ones, published in 2011. Most of the books I read (new and old) were fiction, but there were a few great non-fiction titles. Of the new non-fiction books, I particularly liked Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer, a fascinating book about memory.

My other favourite titles from 2011 were all fiction. I absolutely loved Goliath, the conclusion of the Leviathan series by Scott Westerfeld, which was also my most anticipated book of the year. I also really enjoyed Blackout and All Clear, Connie Willis’ time travel diptych. I plan to read more time travel stories next year, because it is something I always find interesting. (Some sources put this as a 2010 book, but it was released here in 2011 so I’m including it.) Finally, I was recently utterly enthralled by Embassytown by China Mieville, a late entry to the list; I expect more books by Mieville will appear on my reading list next year.

Of the older non-fiction titles I read, I would highly rate two books about space travel that I read early in the year, A Man on the Moon by Andrew Chaikin and Moondust by Andrew Smith. Both are really excellent, and provide two different perspectives on the Apollo programme. I really loved both of them.

I’d actually read them before, and in fact quite a lot of the books that I read this year (11 out of 70) were in fact re-reads (a big increase from 1 out of 60 last year). Back in the spring I embarked on a little project to re-read four classic SF novels, Gateway by Frederik Pohl, The Forever War by Joe Haldeman, Ringworld by Larry Niven (my favourite of the four) and Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C Clarke. I really enjoyed revisiting these novels and may do something similar next year.

Later in the year I also re-read two of my all-time favourite novels, American Gods by Neil Gaiman and The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks. They are both brilliant books, and that was one of my reading highlights for the year.

A few other noteworthy titles: I read A Visit From The Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan after it was recommend by a friend, and while it is not my usual thing I thought it was really inventive and I really enjoyed it. Similarly Skippy Dies by Paul Murray was another book which was a bit different for me, but which I loved.

I also really enjoyed The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins (well, the first book in particular was brilliant; the other two were okay but not as great). I am planning to read a few other YA series next year because it is something I enjoy.

I continued making my way through Haruki Murakami’s works, and in particular I loved A Wild Sheep Chase and Dance Dance Dance. I received IQ84 for Christmas, so I plan to read that soon and continue with the rest of his books too. On a similar note, I am still reading through the last few Iain Banks books – I read the last of his SF books, Surface Detail and Feersum Endjinn, and a few of his mainstream books, the highlight of which was The Steep Approach to Garbadale. I have three left to read and I’m rationing them now, I need them to last until his new book is released next year!

Finally, I read a few Agatha Christie novels for the first time, and I was totally surprised by how much I loved Murder on the Orient Express and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, so I plan to read more of her books next year.

I could go on and on listing books, because the majority of them that I read were ones that I liked and enjoyed. But I’ve tried to just mention the books that I thought were particularly great, or which especially stood out in my memory; I’m sure I’ve missed some and will kick myself right after I post this. There were a few books I read that I really hated, but I’d rather not dwell on the bad ones, and actually I usually gave up on books that I really hated, there were only a few that for some reason I felt compelled to continue despite my disliking for them.

My plan for next year is to read 75 books, which is a bit more than the past couple of years, but still less than I was reading for the first few years that I kept track. I think it is probably doable though, as reading is still my primary hobby and I already have a huge list of books that I plan to read over the coming months. Overall it has been a pretty good year of reading for me.

This year I’ve been to the cinema 23 times, which is not bad. It only pales in comparison to a couple of years ago when I saw almost 60 films at the cinema. Another big difference is that this year I only saw a handful of films on DVD (and didn’t really bother to review many of them) whereas a couple of years ago I rented tons of movies and saw three or four a week. I’m not sure exactly why I’ve lost my enthusiasm for films, but it does correspond with me reading a lot more and watching a lot more television, and overall I’m okay with that.

I do still enjoy going to the cinema though. Of the 23 films I saw on the big screen this year, 3 were actually older films, while 20 were new releases in 2011 (although actually some of them may be from 2010 if you live in the US where movies tend to be released earlier than here in the UK).

So here are some of my favourite films of the year (the links take you to my reviews):

My absolute favourite was The Adventures of Tintin, because it was just so wonderfully fun and unexpectedly good, and looking back at the list of films that I saw it is the one that most stands out as being something I loved.

Another great film and a close runner up is Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, which was a brilliant and clever espionage film. I actually went to see it twice, and the second viewing did help in figuring out exactly what was going on!

True Grit is one that I think the purists would probably argue belongs on a 2010 list, but it wasn’t released here until February which is when I saw it, so I’m going to say it counts for my 2011 list. It definitely deserves a place at any rate.

There were two good science fiction films that I enjoyed this year. Super 8 is the Abrams/Spielberg film about a group of kids who discover an alien; it was maybe a bit predictable but very impressive. Source Code is a film that plays around with time travel and alternative realities in an interesting way, and it was only disappointing in comparison to director Duncan Jones’ earlier film Moon.

I’ve rather lost interest in superhero films but one that I thought was a good one this year was X-Men: First Class. I was pleasantly surprised by it, and I thought it was fun and entertaining in exactly the way you want a superhero film to be.

This year I also enjoyed Arrietty, the Studio Ghibli version of The Borrowers. I didn’t think it was a great as some of the other Studio Ghibli films that I’ve seen, but it was still a good film and an interesting version of the story.

Finally, I really liked Attack the Block, a British film about an alien invasion on a tough London estate. Think Shaun of the Dead but with aliens instead of zombies, and more properly scary.

Making this list I was struck by the fact that there were relatively few films I saw this year that I really loved, and indeed some of the ones I’ve written about here would never have made the list if this was a few years ago when I was seeing far more movies. Quite of a lot of the films that I saw this year were merely okay. I also skipped a lot of the more serious films that again I would have made the effort to see in previous years. In addition there were quite a few films that I did want to see but missed at the cinema because I didn’t have time to go; those I will hopefully catch on DVD next year. Overall it wasn’t a great year for movies for me, but I think partly that was due to my attitude and the films that I did actually go to see.

I watched quite a lot of television this year, both shows that were new (including continuing shows that were airing new episodes) and also older shows that I watched on DVD. I’m won’t go into too much detail here, just some brief observations. (The links take you to my reviews.)

Of the new/current shows that I watched, I particularly loved Doctor Who, the second series of Rev., the new show Death in Paradise and the television film about Monty Python, Holy Flying Circus. I also thought that James May’s Man Lab was pretty fun too, although that may be somewhat controversial. The only American show I really watched was Community, and that was brilliant too. I also watched all the standard panel shows (QI, WILTY, HIGNFY and other such acronyms) all of which continued to be enjoyable viewing.

I watched a lot of older stuff on DVD. The major one to mention is Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, which took up a fair chunk of time and which I haven’t actually finished yet, although it has been fantastic to rewatch that show. Another one that stands out is Father Ted, which I saw for the first time and loved. I also watched The IT Crowd again, another sitcom, which I’ve seen many times and still thoroughly enjoy.

I also watched a lot of old television shows with my boyfriend, including Avatar: The Last Airbender and Firefly, which are old favourites of mine, and also The Goodies, which was something new and great to see. We also watched quite a lot of classic Doctor Who, which was also fun.

Finally, I watched Sherlock three times on DVD. Not that I’m obsessed or anything!

I don’t keep track of what I watch on television as rigorously as I track my reading and film viewing, so this post is mostly based on what I’ve written reviews for over the past year. I definitely watched quite a lot more television than in some previous years, which I think corresponds with a decline in my film viewing. But the important thing is that I wasn’t just randomly channel-surfing, I watched some really good stuff on DVD, and I used iPlayer to keep up-to-date with new shows. There are a few notable things that I missed (I may be the only person who didn’t watch Game of Thrones!) which I plan to catch up on next year. Overall I am happy with my viewing habits and looking forward watching some more great television shows coming up in the new year.

It’s that time of year again! Snobs complain about all the tedious end-of-year lists that crop up, while nerds like me rejoice in the opportunity to reflect on the past year in an orderly manner. Yup, I love my lists! That being said, I’ve actually haven’t compiled lists, but rather written rambling summations of what I’ve listened to, watched and read this year. This is not intended as any serious critique, just my personal reflections. File under: I spend too much time obsessively documenting my pop culture consumption habits. So prepare to be bombarded with my opinions on the best music, films, television shows and books of 2011.

As always, very few of the books that I read are new to this year, so this isn’t so much a list of the best books of 2010 that I read, but rather the best books that I read in 2010. (All of the links go to my own reviews).

I’ve read quite a lot of non-fiction books this year, the best of which, by far, was the wonderful The Age of Wonder by Richard Holmes. I also particularly enjoyed Bad Medicine by David Wootton, The Drunkard’s Walk by Leonard Mlodinow and Packing for Mars by Mary Roach.

This year I read a number of books by Iain Banks, this year branching out into his mainstream fiction after reading most of his science fiction novels the previous two years. Particular highlights were The Wasp Factory and The Crow Road.

Another author I vowed to read more of this year was Haruki Murakami, and I thoroughly loved all of his books that I’ve read this year: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World and Norwegian Wood.

One author I’ve just discovered is Ian McEwan – I read and loved both Solar and Saturday, so my planned reading for next year includes several of his novels.

One of my favourite books I read this year was Anathem by Neal Stephenson, an epic science fiction novel (I’m slightly shocked, actually, by how little science fiction I read this year compared to previously). I followed it up with Cryptonomicon and I’m planning to read his three Baroque Cycle novels next year.

Other highlights include Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut, Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse, The City and The City by China Mieville, Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro and Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon. I also enjoyed Leviathan and Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld (because there is nothing wrong with occasionally reading YA books, especially ones this good).

Interestingly, and unusually for me, of the sixty books that I read this year, all but one were completely new to me. The only one I read that I had already read previously was Ender’s Game (which was my favourite book for a long time, and which may still be, and which I love unreservedly.)

But my favourite book of the year was by far The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen. Yes, I know everyone is raving about Freedom, but I was late to the party and instead this year I read The Corrections, which was fantastic. Freedom will just have to be the first book that I read next year!

Looking at various ‘best of’ lists that have now appeared online, I’m embarrassed by how few films I saw this year. The past few years I’ve been quite a film geek, but this year I’ve been overtaken by a kind of pop culture ennui, and my film viewing has been most affected. There are plenty of good films I’ve missed at the cinema because I couldn’t be bothered going out, and I’ve seen practically nothing on DVD (new or old releases).

In addition, I’m plagued again by the problem of release dates, and not knowing whether to include something on my list because it may have been released the year before in another country. In the past I’ve been picky about that (an understatement!), but this year I’m less inclined to care, and also burdened by the fact that I’ve seen so few films anyway. So I’ve gone with films released in the UK this year, regardless of when they were released in the US or elsewhere, so no complaints about that please (I promise I’ll be pedantic again next year).

So here is my paltry list - the links go to my reviews - with a resolution that next year I’ll try to catch up with all the movies I missed, and try to get back into films in general.

1. Inception
2. Scott Pilgrim Vs The World
3. The Social Network
4. The Secrets In Their Eyes
5. The Bad Lieutenant
6. A Single Man
7. Up in the Air
8. The Road

An ‘Honourable Mention’ goes to Toy Story 3, which I left off the list only because I couldn’t bring myself to love it the way I do other Pixar films.

This year I’ve listened to more music, and purchased more music, than in any previous year. But still, I’d hesitate to say I’m any kind of music nerd, and my enjoyment of music is restricted to listening to it (compared to my obsessive interest in other areas of popular culture). But there have definitely been some good albums from the past year that I’ve added to my collection, and here are my favourites:

• Los Campesinos! – Romance Is Boring
• Arcade Fire – The Suburbs
• Wolf Parade – Expo 86 
• The National – High Violet
• Freelance Whales – Weathervanes
• Tokyo Police Club – Champ
• Stars – The Five Ghosts
• Hot Chip – One Life Stand
• LCD Soundsystem – This Is Happening
• Titus Andronicus – The Monitor
• Matt & Kim - Sidewalks

Also, I can’t really not mention this, but this year I got really into Placebo after I acquired their entire discography from a friend, and they’ve fast become one of my favourites bands. So that is my favourite non-2010 music discovered in 2010.

Books Read In December 2009

1. The Gates – John Connolly
2. Transition – Iain M Banks
3. The End of Mr Y – Scarlett Thomas
4. Freakonomics – Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner
5. Superfreakonomics – Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner
6. The Affinity Bridge – George Mann
7. The Osiris Ritual – George Mann
8. 253 – Geoff Ryman
9. Eating The Dinosaur – Chuck Klosterman